LOS ANGELES | July 19th, 2022 – Drake Star is pleased to publish the June 2022 edition of its Global Gaming Industry Report providing key insights into the gaming deal activities for the first six months of the year and also analyzes the key trends in the second quarter of the year. 2022 has been the hottest year in gaming with staggering $107B+ in total deal value for 651 announced and/or closed deals in the first 6 months alone. H1 saw 635 deals being announced with a $100B+ in disclosed total deal value.
The June report analyzes the first half of 2022 in terms of deal activity and volume across market segments (M&A, private placements, public markets), M&A activity by volume and multiples, public market performance and valuations, and discusses the most active gaming buyers and venture capital (VC) investors.
- Unprecedented industry consolidation with over $95B in announced and/or closed M&A activity across mobile, PC/console, and esports. 6 mega billion-dollar-plus deals included the largest ever gaming acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, Zynga by Take-Two, Bungie by Sony, and ESL+FACEIT by Savvy Games/PIF. Mobile was the most active segment with 47 deals.
- A record-breaking $7B+ was invested through VCs and strategics in private gaming companies during the first half, with 11 large $100m+ rounds. Epic Games led the pack with a mammoth $2B raise while Animoca Brands, Dream Games, Immutable, and thatgamecompany followed with large $150M+ deals. The most active VCs included Bitkraft, Galaxy Interactive, a16z, and Griffin Gaming.
- More than $2.2B was raised by private blockchain/NFT gaming companies with over half of total amount raised by early-stage companies. Most active investors were Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, and FTX.
The report further focuses on the market activities for Q2 2022 by breaking out the most significant deals across M&A, private financings, and public market updates. As the broader markets witnessed a slowdown, gaming was also impacted but M&A and financing activities remained largely stable.
- While Q2 didn’t have any mega M&A deals, M&A activity remained very healthy with 60 announced deals compared to ~74 deals/quarter in 2021 and ~47 deals/quarter in 2020. Notable buyers included Tencent (Sybo, Trailmix), Embracer (Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and Square Enix Assets), Microsoft/Activision (Proletariat, Peltarion), and Hasbro (D&D Beyond).
- Private financing market continued to see strong deal activity with $3.6B in total financings in Q2, surpassing Q1 total through 169 deals. Blockchain continued to be a major push in gaming with over half of financing deals related to blockchain gaming companies.
- Multiple new funds focused on gaming/blockchain were announced in Q2 including by a16z ($4.5B blockchain and $600M gaming), Binance ($500M), Immutable ($500M), and Konvoy Ventures ($150M) and are actively looking to deploy the new capital.
- In public markets, Embracer Group raised $1B from Savvy Gaming/PIF (8.1%), and PIF also strengthened its gaming presence with investments in Konami, Capcom, and Nintendo. Joffre Capital acquired a minority stake in Playtika for $2.2B.
View & download our report - Global Gaming Report | H1 2022
Drake Star Gaming Team: Michael Metzger, Mohit Pareek
Inquiries
For further inquiries, please contact:
Michael Metzger
Partner | Drake Star
e-mail: michael.metzger@drakestar.com